Read This If You’ve Ever Had to Pretend You’re Okay

r/

Everyone thinks anxiety is just being nervous.

But it’s not.

It’s sitting in a room full of people and feeling like you’re drowning.

It’s the cold sweat, the shaky legs, the urge to run but not knowing where.

It’s your mind screaming get out while your face tries to look chill.

It’s hell disguised as “I’m fine.”

And when it hits, it doesn’t care where you are or who’s watching.

It just takes over.

And all you can do is survive it.

Comments

  1. Weird-Bug-5430 Avatar

    This really hits home. People don’t realize how exhausting it is to constantly mask what’s going on inside. Just getting through the day can feel like a win when anxiety takes over.

  2. Safe_Departure8133 Avatar

    At work every single day. They all back stab each other and it’s awful. I leave the room when they start which then makes them start on me, in front of me with veiled comments. I’ve never felt like I fit anywhere as it was. But add this to the above and it’s like hell on earth.

  3. oscarandfrank Avatar

    I work a social job, mask all day and then get in bed at 6 pm. I hear you. I hate this for us.

  4. EasyJump2642 Avatar

    Is…is that what this is?? Jesus this makes so much sense but I’ve never put things together. I feel like this constantly in public, at my job. The cold sweats start immediately and I HATE it there, but I have to put the smile on. I think I need to make an appointment about anxiety. .

  5. NectarsNova Avatar

    Dude this hit like a truck. Anxiety really be out here doing the most while you’re just tryna exist. One minute you’re chilling, next minute you’re sweating like you just ran a marathon but all you did was open an email

    The “I’m fine” performance deserves an Oscar at this point. It’s wild how good you get at pretending you’re calm when inside it’s pure chaos. Thanks for putting this into words—feels weirdly comforting to know other people get it too.

  6. Lazy_Coconut7622 Avatar

    I used to have extreme anxiety. Turns out I was undiagnosed neurodivergent and had some childhood trauma to work through.

  7. hopefulastronot Avatar

    This resonates with me. It sucks because I’m unfortunately so bad at pretending I am okay, and it’s embarrassing.